August 9, 2010

I said be careful that potato is really a battery — The rise of potato power

Long story short: boiling a potato before making a battery out of it, like we did for science class in elementary school, soups up the tuber such that it produces up to 10 times as much power (nearly half that of a commercial AA battery) as a raw potato — enabling it to work as a battery for days or even weeks.

An
electric battery based on boiled potatoes could provide a cheap source
of electricity in the developing world, according to the technology
transfer company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The treated potato battery generates energy that is five to 50 times
cheaper than commercially available batteries, Yissum Research Development Co. said. A light powered by the battery is at
least six times more economical than kerosene lamps often used in the
developing world.

"The ability to provide electrical power with such simple and
natural means could benefit millions of people in the developing word,
literally bringing light and telecommunication to their life in areas
currently lacking electrical infrastructure," Yaacov Michlin, chief
executive of Yissum, said in a statement.

The findings were published in the June issue of the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy.

Haim Rabinowitch and research student Alex Golberg at Israel's
Hebrew University jointly with Boris Rubinsky at the University of
California at Berkeley discovered a new way to construct an efficient
battery using zinc and copper electrodes and a slice of an ordinary
potato.

They found that boiling the potato prior to use in electrolysis
increased electric power up to 10-fold over the untreated potato and
enabled the battery to work for days and even weeks.

Potatoes are produced in 130 countries over a wide range of climates
and thus available year round. It is the world's number one non-grain
starch food commodity.